Hi,

I have a question to the helpful folks at rec.food.drink.tea. I have
received a nice gift from my sister: it is a piece of a compressed cake made
of dry buds and leaves of some kind of dried herbs. She bought it from a
small vendor of Chinese teas, for quite a high price admittedly. The vendor
said it was a puerh cake made of the finest tea buds. My sister wrote the
name of the tea on the wrapping as she heard it from the vendor: "Shen puerh
Ya Ping".

I have brewed and tasted the tea and I have my serious doubts. It does not
taste and smell like tea at all - has almost no taste and has a weak and
unpleasant sweet smell - and the wet buds definitely do not look like
Camelia Chinensis. I am wondering what it could be, and I hope that some of
the more experienced readers of this group could tell me.

Here you can see some pictures of both the dry and the wet leaves:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...hitecake01.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...hitecake02.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...hitecake03.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...hitecake04.jpg

Thank you,
Gyorgy

Maybe it's a compressed version of Ya Bao. Here's a link:
http://www.royalpuer.com/Ya-Bao.asp
~grasshopper

Grasshopper > writes:

> Maybe it's a compressed version of Ya Bao. Here's a link:
> http://www.royalpuer.com/Ya-Bao.asp

I agree on the resemblance. And when I had a chance to taste Yabaocha
a while ago, I found it kind of nasty in a way that made me doubt it
really was Camellia sinensis, which is what the original poster was
saying. Please note that I'm not saying it isn't tea, just that it's
.... weird.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

Thank you, Grasshopper and Lewis! Yes, the resemblance of the wet leaves is
striking, so it is almost certainly the same tea.

Lewis, I would also describe the taste of this tea as nasty and weird. Quite
the opposite of what the reviewers say at the Royal Puer site.

Gyorgy

"Lewis Perin" > skrev i en meddelelse
news
> Grasshopper > writes:
>
>> Maybe it's a compressed version of Ya Bao. Here's a link:
>> http://www.royalpuer.com/Ya-Bao.asp
>
> I agree on the resemblance. And when I had a chance to taste Yabaocha
> a while ago, I found it kind of nasty in a way that made me doubt it
> really was Camellia sinensis, which is what the original poster was
> saying. Please note that I'm not saying it isn't tea, just that it's
> ... weird.
>
> /Lew
> ---
> Lew Perin /
> http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

On Apr 27, 10:45*pm, "Gyorgy Sajo" > wrote:
> Hi,
> I have brewed and tasted the tea and I have my serious doubts. It does not
> taste and smell like tea at all - has almost no taste and has a weak and
> unpleasant sweet smell - and the wet buds definitely do not look like
> Camelia Chinensis. I am wondering what it could be, and I hope that some of
> the more experienced readers of this group could tell me.
>

Hi György (are you Hungarian? :-)

the cake looks to be of pure buds (tea-rügy) like this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/2007-Silver-Bud-...QQcmdZViewItem

The very young tea leaves are probably less powerful then more grown
leaves. Unlike pu-erh, this cake will also not age well.


Tomas

http://tuochatea.blogspot.com

"Balt" > wrote:
On Apr 27, 10:45 pm, "Gyorgy Sajo" > wrote:

> Hi György (are you Hungarian? :-)

Yes. Thanks for the double dots. :-)

>the cake looks to be of pure buds (tea-rügy) like this one
>http://cgi.ebay.com/2007-Silver-Bud-...QQcmdZViewItem

Yes, they are indeed buds, they just do not look like any other teabuds that
I have seen before. They have a very unusual structure with many small
leaves developing almost simultaneously from the same base point.

György

I realize it has been a while since this string of posts first
appeared, but I had ordered some ya bao cha from Royal Puer way back
at the end of March and just today received my shipment. I brewed some
of the ya bao cha in a tall glass like one might brew a green tea in
China, and I find it quite pleasant and not in the slightest bit
nasty. It seems a bit fruity with a piney taste in there somewhere. In
fact, I even taste a similar flavor to a dan cong I have (and like). I
think this is really good, whether tea or not. And despite the strange
appearance of the tea buds, which are similar to the pictures in the
first post, I wouldn't be surprised to find out this is actually from
a real camelia sinensis (sp?) bush. I will admit that I can't imagine
how this would taste if brewed gongfu style--might be a little harsh
and bad. I would not describe the tea I received from royalpuer.com as
"weak" in any way. It is, in fact, pretty strong in fragrance and
taste.

I just wanted to put this description out there for anyone who may be
considering giving this tea a try. I'm pretty happy with it and glad I
gave it a shot.

-cha bing

On Jun 21, 1:52*pm, cha bing > wrote:
> I realize it has been a while since this string of posts first
> appeared, but I had ordered some ya bao cha from Royal Puer way back
> at the end of March and just today received my shipment. I brewed some
> of the ya bao cha in a tall glass like one might brew a green tea in
> China, and I find it quite pleasant and not in the slightest bit
> nasty. It seems a bit fruity with a piney taste in there somewhere. In
> fact, I even taste a similar flavor to a dan cong I have (and like). I
> think this is really good, whether tea or not. And despite the strange
> appearance of the tea buds, which are similar to the pictures in the
> first post, I wouldn't be surprised to find out this is actually from
> a real camelia sinensis (sp?) bush. I will admit that I can't imagine
> how this would taste if brewed gongfu style--might be a little harsh
> and bad. I would not describe the tea I received from royalpuer.com as
> "weak" in any way. It is, in fact, pretty strong in fragrance and
> taste.
>
> I just wanted to put this description out there for anyone who may be
> considering giving this tea a try. I'm pretty happy with it and glad I
> gave it a shot.
>
> -cha bing

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